Hundreds of workers at a factory being built in Georgia to make car batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles were detained in a huge raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on Thursday that stopped construction.
The facility is part of what would be the biggest industrial investment in the state’s history and had been hailed as a huge boost for the economy by Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.
About 475 workers were arrested, according to US immigration officials on Friday, the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US in New York and Washington DC.
However, the Korea Economic Daily earlier had reported about 560 workers at the Hyundai facility and LG Energy Solution (LGES), had been detained, citing unidentified industry sources. About 300 are South Korean nationals, according to local media reports. Hyundai Motor is a South Korean automotive company but has many international plants.
The raid on Thursday has dealt a setback to the company’s substantial project in Georgia and was a dramatic iteration of the Trump administration’s harsh crackdown on immigrants in the US.
It also showed the disruptive impact that Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda is having on businesses, even as the White House tries to spur more inflows from foreign investors.
An agent at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said multiple federal agencies, including Ice, the FBI and the DEA “conducted a judicially authorized enforcement operation, as we are actively conducting an investigation into unlawful employment practices”.
“Arrests are being made,” Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Georgia, said in a news briefing.
A government official representing South Korea, the home of Hyundai Motor, said those arrested were being held at an Ice detention facility.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said that “many of our nationals” had been detained and expressed concern about the impact of the raid.
“The economic activities of our companies investing in the United States and the interests of our citizens must not be unduly violated during the course of US law enforcement,” a ministry spokesperson, Lee Jae-woong, said in a statement on Friday.
The battery production facility, a joint venture between South Korean battery maker LGES and Hyundai Motor, was due to start operations at the end of this year, according to LGES, to power electric vehicles.
The arrests could exacerbate tensions between Washington and Seoul, a key ally and investor in the US. The countries have been at odds over the details of a trade deal that includes $350bn of investments. At a summit last month, South Korea pledged $150bn in US investments – including $26bn from Hyundai Motor.
A spokesperson at the Hyundai-GA battery company in Georgia said in a statement that it was cooperating fully and that it had paused construction work.
DHS officials said the workers who were arrested were barred from working in the US after crossing the border illegally or overstaying visas, following an investigation lasting several months.
A Hyundai Motor spokesperson said none of the people detained were employed directly by the automaker, which complies “with all laws and regulations wherever we operate”.
Hyundai Motor also said its production of electric vehicles at the sprawling site was not affected.
The workers were being held at Ice’s Folkston, Georgia detention facility, Schrank said. Most of the 475 people are Korean nationals, he said.
In 2023, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution (LGES) announced the $4.3bn venture to produce EV battery cells, with each company holding a 50% stake. The plant will supply batteries for Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EV models.
The battery factory is part of Hyundai’s $12.6bn investments in Georgia, including the automaker’s just-opened car factory, in what would be “the largest economic development project in the state’s history” and is part of a bigger investment in US industry by the South Korean company, announced in March as Trump was ramping up tariffs.
Social media video footage showed a man wearing a vest with the letters HIS, an acronym for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), telling workers in yellow safety vests: “We have a search warrant for the whole site. We need construction to cease immediately. We need all work to end on the site right now.”
Trump has said he wants to deport “the worst of the worst” criminals, but Ice figures have shown a rise in non-criminals being picked up. Rights advocates have denounced such raids.
While HSI led the raid, federal officers were assisted by the Georgia department of public safety and state troopers, according to local media.
Meanwhile in upstate New York, another significant Ice raid took place at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners facilities near Syracuse, where snack bars are made at a family-owned concern, drawing anger from the state governor.
Officers forced entry to the industrial facility and detained dozens of workers.
“I am outraged by this morning’s Ice raids in Cato and Fulton, where more than 40 adults were seized, including parents of at least a dozen children at risk of returning from school to an empty house,” Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, said in a statement released by her office.
“I’ve made it clear, New York will work with the federal government to secure our borders and deport violent criminals, but we will never stand for masked Ice agents separating families and abandoning children,” Hochul added.
The migrant advocacy group Rural & Migrant Ministry said on Facebook that it estimated that more than 70 workers had been arrested.
Reuters contributed reporting
